New consulting and advisory services to be launches by Visa to help its clients navigate the world of cryptocurrencies.
The payments processor says its crypto advisory practice, housed within its consulting and analytics division, will offer advice to financial institutions, retailers and other firms on everything from rolling out crypto features to exploring non-fungible tokens.
This marks Visa’s latest attempt to push deeper into the crypto industry. From Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021, the company processed $3.5 billion in digital currency transactions through its crypto-linked card schemes, according to Nikola Plecas, Visa’s European crypto lead.
“Some of these leading exchanges have millions or, in some instances, tens of millions of users,” Plecas told CNBC, adding that the company allows users to spend their crypto at over 80 million merchants.
“Crypto for us is a huge new vertical and growth opportunity. And we will be continuing to focus on growing this business moving forward”, Plecas added
The company is also developing products geared toward stablecoins — virtual tokens tied to the value of sovereign currencies, typically the dollar — and central bank-issued digital currencies.
Visa hopes its crypto consultancy can help further mainstream adoption of bitcoin and other digital currencies. Like rival Mastercard, the credit card giant sees cryptocurrencies as a key growth opportunity as it expands into areas beyond card payments.
Meanwhile, Visa is also under pressure from large tech companies. Amazon last month said it would stop accepting Visa credit cards in the U.K. due to the company’s “high fees.” The e-commerce titan has taken similar steps against Visa in Australia and Singapore.